The present invention relates to wireless communications in general and, in particular, to a satellite communications network.
Consumer broadband satellite services are gaining traction in North America with the start up of network services using Ka band satellites. While such first generation satellite systems may provide multi-gigabit per second (Gbps) per satellite overall capacity, current designs of such systems inherently limit the number of customers who may be served with sufficient bandwidth. Because this capacity may be split across numerous coverage areas, the bandwidth to each subscriber may be limited.
While existing designs have a number of capacity limitations, the demand for such broadband services continues to grow. The past few years have seen strong advances in communications and processing technology. This underlying technology, in conjunction with selected sub-channelization techniques, may be harnessed to produce novel satellite communications systems and components to address this demand.